this journal thing

First of all, keeping a public journal will let friends stay up to date on what I'm doing even when I wouldn't otherwise happen to mention every detail to every friend in conversation. Conversely, people who aren't interested don't have to sit still for it. This is handy.

What's more, a journal causes me to start conversations (well, including the trivial conversation of one utterance) instead of tagging along on existing ones. It strikes me sometimes how some of my interests, or call them some of my lines of thought, I don't often end up in conversation about, even with as random a set of friends as I have around to talk with. It's collective habit. You know how people have this cloud of likely topics of conversation when they get together? Knitted together and fringed by likely first- and higher-order tangent transitions? Let's light up a few outliers.

For "random", substitute "far-ranging". Yes.

If you're not someone I presently know, this journal isn't exactly aimed at you, though you're welcome to make all the use you can and care to of it. Since I am a private person and you the public are vast -- well you _could_ be -- I'm naturally going to filter what goes in here. Nothing that's personal to someone other than me, nothing I wouldn't want my mother to read (hi Mom), nothing I wouldn't want law-enforcement personnel to read, usual routine. Yunz who know me, ask for the dirt next time we have dinner or such.

I write slowly. Please read slowly.